This large volume is a welcome and useful addition to our knowledge of the historical development of psychiatry as it slowly and painfully progressed from the essentially medieval teachings of the early Sixteenth Century to its emergence as a specialized discipline at about the time Bleuler, Freud, and Kraepelin were born. The stated purpose of the book is to present original sources in a readable, coherently grouped form designed 'to serve the dual purpose of a sourcebook of psychiatric history aiming at biographical and bibliographical accuracy, and a contribution to clinical psychiatry by providing a record of its problems and growth'.

The authors have assembled a massive collection of extracts and essays from original sources and have arranged them chronologically